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March 29, 2011
Nashville, TN - Ben Davis, a Tennessee Wildlife Resources
Agency officer, has received a Merit Award from the National Water
Safety Congress for his role in rescuing three persons who were
involved in a boat fire on Watts Bar Lake last summer.
 Davis
received the award from the National Water Safety Congress in
Savannah, Ga. during the organization’s 15th International Boating
and Water Safety Summit.
The award comes as a result of Davis’ measures taken to save a
man’s life after a boat exploded and threw the man overboard on
Watts Bar Lake in the summer of 2010. Three people were thrown
overboard, two had on life jackets, but one man who suffered
second and third degree burns was not wearing a life jacket on and
probably would have drowned if Davis had not heard the shouts for
help.
The accident occurred at night and District 32 officers had just
completed the second day of Operation Drywater (BUI campaign) when
the shouts were heard. Davis ran down the dock and boarded his
boat and drove toward the calls for help. He found the boat on
fire and discovered three people in the water. Davis rescued a
juvenile male and adult female who were each wearing personal
flotation devices (PFDs). He pulled the burned victim onto the
patrol boat and summoned emergency rescue personnel and life
flight.
While waiting for the emergency responders to arrive Davis kept
the man as comfortable as possible, emptying cold water over the
man’s body. TWRA officers assisted in transporting fire fighters
to the scene of the boat fire and escorting the ambulance to a
proper landing zone and establishing the landing zone. The patient
was treated at a regional burn unit and was later released. The
other rescued persons did not require medical treatment.
The National Water Safety Congress (NWSC) was established in
Nashville in 1951 as a response to growing concerns over water
deaths in the region of the Cumberland and Tennessee River
valleys. An accident on the Calf Killer River where a family of
eight drowned after their boat capsized prompted the
organization’s establishment.
Each year, the NWSC presents awards at the annual International
Boating and Water Safety Summit to selected individuals and
organizations that have made outstanding contributions to water
safety during the previous year.
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